Dealers and collectors - National Museums Liverpool

and most respected London dealers in Chinese art.Literature· Times, 6 November 1934, p.19.· Archive location: SOAS Library, School of Oriental and African Studies, University ofLondon.Richard BennettRichard Bennett (b. 1849) was from Horwich, near Bolton, in Lancashire. Despite being amajor collector of books and manuscripts, as well as Chinese porcelain, Bennett is somewhatan obscure figure. By 1881 he was living at Great Lever Hall and was owner or manager ofJohn Smith Junior & Co., a bleaching and chemical manufacturing company in Great Lever.During 1890/91, Bennett moved to Southport and then to Manchester and by 1902 he wasliving at Thornby Hall in Northamptonshire, his residence when, in 1911, his collection wassold to William Hesketh Lever by Gorer for £275,000.Literature· Gorer, Edgar, ‘Catalogue of the Collection of old Chinese Porcelains formed by RichardBennett, Esq. Thornby Hall, Northampton’, London, 1911.· Impey, Oliver, ‘Lever as a collector of Chinese porcelain’ in Morris, Edward (ed.), “Art andBusiness in Edwardian England: The Making of The Lady Lever Art Gallery”, Journal ofthe History of Collections, volume 4, number 2, 1992, p.234.Sir William BennettSir William Henry Bennett, KCVO (1852 ­ 1931), was an eminent surgeon, of 3 Hyde ParkPlace, London. He was elected Fellow of several learned societies (RCS England, RoyalSociety of Medicine, the Zoological and Horticultural Societies). He published on surgicalsubjects and his appointments included Examiner in Surgery at Cambridge University,